88 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



each of which requires a lifetime of diligent study for its mas- 

 tery, are serious obstacles in the investigation of a certain class 

 of problems that can only be solved by contributions from the 

 entire circle of the sciences. 



Prof. Huxley has sounded a note of warning which should be 

 heeded, especially by those who are engaged in conducting experi- 

 ments for the advancement of agricultural science. In his retir- 

 ing address as President of the Royal Society he says : " Of late 

 years it has struck me with constantly increasing force that those 

 who have toiled for the advancement of science are in a fair way 

 of being overwhelmed by the realization of their own wishes. 

 We are in the case of Tarpeia, who opened the gates of the Roman 

 citadel to the Sabines, and was crushed under the weight of the 

 reward bestowed upon her. It has become impossible for any man 

 to keep pace with the progress of the whole of any important 

 branch of science. If he were to attempt to do so his mental fac- 

 ulties would be crushed by the multitude of journals and volu- 

 minous monographs which a too fertile press casts upon him. 

 This was not the case in my young days. A diligent reader might 

 then keep fairly informed of all that was going on without de- 

 moralizing his faculties by the accumulation of unassimilated in- 

 formation. It looks as if the scientific, like other revolutions, 

 meant to devour its own children ; as if the growth of science 

 tended to overwhelm its votaries ; as if the man of science of the 

 future were condemned to diminish into a narrower and narrower 

 specialist as time goes on. 



'' I am happy to say that I do not think any such catastrophe 

 a necessary consequence of the growth of science ; but I do think 

 it is a tendency to be feared, and an evil to be most carefully 

 provided against. The man who works away at one corner of 

 Nature, shutting his eyes to all the rest, diminishes his chances of 

 seeing what is to be seen in that corner ; for, as I need hardly re- 

 mind my present hearers, that which the investigator perceives 

 depends much more on that which lies behind his sense-organs 

 than on the object in front of them. 



" It appears to me that the only defense against this tendency 

 to the degeneration of scientific workers lies in the organization 

 and extension of scientific education in such a manner as to secure 

 breadth of culture without superficiality ; and, on the other hand, 

 depth and precision of knowledge without narrowness." 



From the exceeding complexity of many of the problems in 

 agricultural science, and the number of factors that require con- 

 sideration in attempts to solve them, there is especial need of 

 guarding against the dangers attending the exclusive prosecution 

 of special lines of research, which are so forcibly stated by Prof. 

 Hnxley with reference to the general advancement of science. 



